December 15, 2000
Photo of the DayQuiz Time AgainDecember 15 – It’s photo quiz time again. Rock our world by identifying |
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Cruising
The Mother of All Carnivals
December 15 – Port of Spain, Trinidad
| What’s with the folks in this photo? Way back in 1991, cruisers Rich and Carol of Nomaer (left) and Lois and Merle of ‘Interlude’, were tied up at the Trinidad YC club. Like everyone else on the island in February, they got all dressed up for Carnival. What’s Carnival? It’s the the final festivity before the commencement Throughout the days of celebration, large trucks carrying bands |
 Rich and Carol of Nomaer and Lois and Merle of Interlude sported ‘oil spill’ costumes for the ’91 Carnival.  A typical local’s Carnival costume Board The height of Carnival in Trinidad in 2001 will be February |
YOTREPS
December 15 – The Pacific Ocean and Cyberspace
Who is out making passages in the Pacific and what kind of
weather are they having? Check out YOTREPS – ‘yacht reports’ –
at http://www.bitwrangler.com/yotreps/
Racing
The Fate of ‘Team Phillips’
December 15 – North Atlantic Ocean
Was the radical Adrian Thompson designed 120-foot wave piercing
catamaran ‘Team Phillips’ – that Pete Goss and his six crew chose
to abandon Sunday on the stormy North Atlantic – a design failure?
At a news conference after arriving in Halifax, Nova Scotia, aboard
a German container ship, Goss told reporters that just the opposite
was true. He said that the Force 12 winds and apartment house
sized waves from conflicting directions were as bad as anything
he’d seen in the Southern Ocean, and that were it not for the
great design, he and his crew would have never made it. Despite
having struck both sails and dragging all their lines and sea
anchors, they were still hitting up to 29 knots and having to
steer for their lives. Goss also said that at times they had a
bow wave off the boat’s central pod – which is normally 17 feet
above sea level. Having been in everything from flat calm to Force
12, Goss used the word “brilliant” to describe the design.
What happens to ‘Team Phillips’ now? Part of her port bow was
knocked off as a result of slamming into the container ship during
the rescue, and one of her masts slapped against the ship, so
it may be damaged also. Basically, the condition of the boat –
which is valued at millions of dollars – is unknown. There have
been rumors of private salvage attempts, but such attempts present
major problems: First, the boat is more than 600 miles from land
in terrible sea conditions that aren’t expected to improve significantly
for a week, and second, the lightning fast boat might be impossible
to tow. Historically, salvage vessels haven’t had much luck bringing
in large multihulls.
For more information, see Tim Jeffery’s interview with Goss for
Quokka Sailing at http://www.quokkasailing.com/stories/12/SLQ_1214_goss_WFC.html,
as well as Jeffery’s and Philip Delves Broughton’s report for
Sport Telegraph at http://sport.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2000/12/14/soyot15.xml.
‘Team Legato’ Photo Just In
December 15 – On The Race Circuit
 Photo by Dave Giles/Team Legato/PPL This just in, the first photos of Tony Bullimore’s ‘Team Legato’ |
Weather Updates
December 15 – Pacific Ocean
San Francisco Bay Weather
To see what the winds are like on the Bay and just outside
the Gate right now, check out http://sfports.wr.usgs.gov/wind/.
California Coast Weather
Looking for current as well as recent wind and sea readings
from 17 buoys and stations between Pt. Arena and the Mexican border?
Here’s the place – which has further links to weather buoys and
stations all over the U.S.: www.ndbc.noaa.gov/stuff/southwest/swstmap.shtml.
Pacific Ocean Weather
You can view the University of Hawaii Department of Meteorology
satellite picture by clicking
here.
Pacific Sea State
Seas are normal in the Pacific. But you might check at: http://www.mpc.ncep.noaa.gov/RSSA/PacRegSSA.html.
For another view, see http://www.oceanweather.com/data/global.html.
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